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To whom it may concern…
April 17, 2007 | Leave a Comment
Hurry up and wait…
We are all in a state of hurry here in New Brunswick. Our new government is scheduled to deliver a new education plan in the next few weeks, and it may contain huge changes in the way education is delivered, and especially with the role of technology to facilitate change.
There are many innovative programs that many of us are heavily vested in, and we are concerned that they may be terminated. I recently offered my perspectives to a group of researchers who were commissioned to gather information for the Department of Education.
This post below is an copy of that submission and I consider this an open letter to the Minister of Education, my colleagues and others who will be making these important decisions shortly.
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To whom it may concern…
Over the past three years I have had the privilege to witness a powerful transformation in our classrooms as a lead teacher and mentor in the 1:1 Student Notebook Initiative.
The 1:1 student laptop initiative has been an overwhelming success at Nashwaaksis Middle School and Leo Hayes High School. Teachers and students alike have embraced the opportunity to create engaging learning environments that focus on information and collaboration.
I want to share a couple of real stories with you. When I began teaching the original laptop classes in Grade 7, we had one young girl who rarely attended school in Grade 6. She had many issues in her life, and school was not addressing her various learning challenges. In short, she was discouraged and disheartened.
The 1:1 program offered her the ability to succeed. Her attendance became regular. The power of technology to level the playing field gave her confidence. As her effort increased, her work improved. At the end of Grade 8 she had missed fewer than five days and, while she is still challenged academically, she has shown significant improvement.
I would like to share another anecdote. Our school offers “Turnaround Awards” for students who show significant improvement during the course of the year. That first year our 1:1 laptop class had 60 students, approximately 8% of the student population at Nasis Middle. At the end of the year, 7 of the 10 recipients of the school-based turnaround awards were from that class – a full 70%!
I would like to take credit as a great teacher, but I truly believe that through technology we were able to create a collegial, engaging, student-centered, success-oriented, community of learners that simply could not have been accomplished in a non-technology-rich environment.
As we prepare our students for the 21st century, we know little about what our children’s future will look like. One thing is certain however; it will be rich with information – to the point of being overwhelming. That media and information landscape will be digital, networked and dynamic, not static and printed on a page.
In order to participate as global citizens in an environment that encourages – even demands – the participation of individuals, we must prepare our students with fundamental 21st century literacy skills – the skills employers are demanding.
As information becomes even more accessible, the real literacy skills will not be simply reading and writing words on a page, but the ability to locate, assess, harvest, manipulate and synthesize information and effectively communicate new ideas. These skills can only be learned in dynamic, engaging and technology-rich learning environments.
I am currently teaching a class through the Mi’kmaq-Maliseet Institute at UNB (ED4862 – Technology in Education). One of my students is a native intervention worker at South Devon Elementary. She is a middle-aged woman who struggles with using technology in her own life. She does, however, recognize that creating technology/information-rich learning environments is the key to the future success of our students. We were talking after class last week and she was telling me that students are starting their day with talk of “going back in time” as they enter the school building. How sad this is. They look to the world of tomorrow, but see themselves being prepared for the world of yesterday.
Our schools must begin to reflect not just the our students’ future, but their present! For most of these young people, the digital landscape is just as real as the physical one. We can use this to engage them.
It is imperative that we look for ways to enrich the lives of our students. As you may be aware, many classes at Nasis Middle are engaged in interdisciplinary, collaborative projects with experts, schools and students around the world, including Malaysia, Serbia, Korea, New Orleans, Maryland and several other places around Canada and the USA. These opportunities would not be available without the ubiquitous and universal access to technology in our school. Stand-alone computer labs simply will not support the level of participation that we have in these types of 21st century learning projects at our school.
The success of our school, and other schools around the province, in providing these opportunities for our students is predicated on two offerings; universal and immediate access to information (via technology) for students and teachers and appropriate levels of professional development to support our learning communities.
Teacher participation cannot be optional. A bookkeeper from 30 years ago would simply not have a job today if s/he had refused to accept and transform their skills to refect changes in technology. I hesitate to view students as “clients”, but if that is the model, our clients need to be served in a manner that serves them best for their future. Teachers who cannot adapt will not be serving their students as 21st century learners.
It is imperative that we continue the development of School 2.0; technology-rich, student-centered leaning environments, where teachers and students have 1:1 access to technology, supported by a network of lead mentors who have proven themselves as innovative teachers. This new story must not simply be a digitization of current practices, but must reflect a fundamental shift in the learning enterprise to reflect the new “flattening world” of Thomas Friedman. We can afford to do nothing less than provide our students with an education that truly reflects the reality of their future.
I would invite you to come visit us at Nasis Middle sometime soon. I would love to show you some examples of the great learning taking place as our teachers and students work together in dynamic learning communities.
Yours in education,
Jeff
